Today, at theAula Magna of the Court of Avellino, an important meeting took place with all the candidates for the office of mayor of the capital municipality, centered on the topic of judicial construction. The comparison, strongly desired and promoted by Council of the Avellino Bar Associationwas led by the president Fabio Benigni.
“The meeting represented an opportunity to better understand the candidates’ proposals on a topic dear to the professional category that we are honored to represent,” commented President Benigni. For some time, Benigni has carefully followed the age-old affair of judicial buildings and the conditions of the building in Piazzale De Marsico, which has already undergone adaptation work from a fire prevention point of view. “We must try to be realistic and hypothesize solutions aimed at enhancing the current structure, to remedy all the problems that you know well and which unfortunately afflict the current Palace of Justice. However, we are open to any solution that is actually achievable. I think that having a Palace of Justice can represent a positive element for the entire city. Naturally, when we talk about justice, we are referring to one of the fundamental functions of the State. There is a need to make the current Palace of Justice more dignified concrete proposals will be put forward, I underline this, we are ready to evaluate them, at present there are archive problems. It is true that computerization and digitalisation have dictated different rules, both in terms of filing of documents and physical participation. In civil trials, physical participation has decreased compared to the past”, concludes Benigni.
The candidates’ proposals
During the meeting, the candidates presented their visions and projects to improve the city’s judicial structures, a crucial issue for the legal community and for the efficiency of justice. The comparison made it possible to highlight the different strategies proposed to address the current and future problems of judicial construction in Avellino.
“The first thing to do is to take into account the needs of those who work in the sector, i.e. judges and lawyers. After that, the method is based on sharing and persuasion,” he says Aldo D’Andrea. “Obviously, there are many things that need to be fixed. The previous administration at least attempted to make proposals, but in some areas nothing was done. Many things need to be considered before making proposals. First, I would like to remind myself and to the others who listen to me that the needs of a court today, in terms of space, are no longer those of twenty years ago, since there is a digitalisation system in place which is progressing and which I hope will complete its process, thus reducing the need for storage space. Therefore, the court, as it is, is perhaps oversized. The lawyers and lawyers will have to decide on this. It is obvious that a discussion needs to be started. as I said before, of persuasion and sharing”.
“The future of the Palace of Justice is one of the qualifying points of our program. We think of a city of solidarity in the three pillars: economic solidarity, social solidarity and environmental solidarity”, he declares Rino Genoese. “For this to happen, it is important for me to build a park here in the urban centre. Piazza d’Armi will return to being a square, with underground car parks which will solve the problem of traffic congestion in this area and will allow the use of car parks by of the citizens. It is obviously important to find a site where the judicial citadel can be built. We have clear ideas that we are also sharing with the ministries. We will talk about it today and I will try to get the bar association to share this idea.”
“It’s fanciful to want to tear down the Courthouse, as I’ve heard, to build something new,” he says Victor Boccieri. “For what reason? The Palace of Justice is perfectly suited to its current functions. Indeed, a reorganization plan has recently been approved from an anti-seismic and safety point of view. Therefore, we would be wasting further money. The Municipality’s budget is completely eliminated due to of previous administrations, which have achieved surprising financial activities. I am talking about 100 million in debt, if not more. Therefore, thinking of once again imposing additional costs for judicial construction on the citizens is superfluous and imaginative there are many unused structures in Avellino. Let’s look around: we see abandoned buildings even in the center of the city, and then we think of renovating the Palace of Justice in Piazza d’Armi. With the electronic civil trial and the current technological push, in some areas it has become superfluous. For example, archiving is now done electronically, so there is no longer any need for the enormous spaces foreseen in the 1960s for archiving and other functions. It would truly be a waste of money for the citizens of Avellino, who already pay the maximum rates for services and taxes.”
“To provide a concrete response and meet the demands of justice, it is essential to dialogue with those who live this reality,” he says Modestino Iandoli. “Therefore, it is necessary to have a strong practical sense and, above all, listening skills. We know that there is a building redevelopment project at the owner of the public works, which has a cost of 5 million euros. If we manage to find agreement on this proposal, we will be obliged to accompany it. Otherwise, we are available to explore all solutions that can provide a definitive answer to this long-standing and still unresolved problem”.
“First of all, this work is by Marcello Canino, one of the great Italian rationalists. We are in favor of the renovation of the existing court; the outgoing administration has not presented any project on the PNRR regarding circular construction”, he declares Anthony Gengaro. “We are one of the few municipalities in Italy that has not presented any project on this topic and, obviously, an international car park must be built in the car park, as we imagined many years ago, where we can also house part of the court archives”.
“For me, the Court should remain, and over time changes could be made to improve its functionality,” he says Gennaro Romei. “At the moment, we are a city of 50 thousand inhabitants, and with the evolution of the process, especially in civil matters, which takes place electronically, I don’t see the need for a judicial city”.
“The issue is as complex as it is delicate,” he says Laura Nargi. “We have addressed this reasoning with legal operators and we have also defined it in our electoral programme, which the others have not done. Proposals are being invented without certain data. This cannot be just a mere electoral slogan. The issue is very delicate. There are two possible solutions. It could certainly be the redevelopment of the building, of the house of justice, even if it is a bit complex to explain it here, because there are 5 million euros from the Ministry of Justice, but it is a project that it dates back to 10 years ago, so we need to update it and find another 5 million Euros, because with the surcharge of the materials the cost of the project has risen to 10 million, as regards the displacement of the building, in NI01, we have tried in recent years with private individuals, we wanted to combine our public shares to involve the private sector, but the private sector itself did not present its proposal, as we expected. As regards the Ex Mostati building, unfortunately or fortunately De Luca has already announced that the ASL headquarters will be there, he has already announced 20 million to redevelop it, so the problem is not so much tearing it down and turning it into a garden with parking, as I too had hoped in these 5 years. It is therefore clear that there is little information, there is no basis on which they have not studied in recent years and have not followed the events of the city.”
